Hot beverages and the like are constantly being served in environments in which an accidental spill can result in a painful injury, property damage, and other undersirable results.
The copending application Ser. No. 722,402 provides a thermo-formed lid with a tear-away section which permits a person to remove a portion of the lid and leave the bulk of the lid on the beverage container and drink through the torn-away segmental portion to give ready access to the contents of the container while substantially reducing the chance of spillage or splash by virtue of leaving the majority of the lid in place on the container while drinking. The entire disclosure of this copending application is incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention utilizes all the concepts and advantages of the copending application incorporated by reference herein and further provides a means whereby the grip of the lid on the rim of an associated container is materially enhanced, the segmental tear-away portion is replaceable on the container to substantially reclose the container and the lid is provided with an indexing means by which a container stacked on top of such a lid will be constrained to assume a predetermined and balanced position.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a new and novel thermo-formed lid of plastic or plastic foam sheet material having a tear-away portion defined therein which will consistently tear off the lid and leave a predictable portion of the lid on the container and which will be replaceable on the container to fill the gap in the lid to substantially its original state.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and novel thermo-formed sheet plastic or foamed sheet plastic lid which will provide an enhanced grip upon the rim of an associated container closed thereby and at the same time provide the tear-away and replaceable segment to permit access to the contents of a container through a predetermined segment of the lid without removing the balance of the lid.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new and novel tear-away and replaceable segment type lid having container stacking index means thereon.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more fully apparent with reference to the following specification and drawings which relate to a preferred embodiment of the invention.